Chapter 1 – Project Management

What is your plan

Never fight a battle unprepared Plans are nothing, planning is everything An IT project is very much like other project that it

needs to have• An objective • A budget• A time line• A group of people working on it• One or more people managing it

The Role of a PM

Technology oriented PM• With strong engineer background recently • Not very high on the organization hierarchies, that is,

managing small projects or part of a large project

Business oriented PM• With strong organization and communication still • With strong business training • High, or have the potential to move to high positions or

managing large projects

Activities of a PM Management

• Making sure the project is carried out on time, Is within budget, Is fully featured, Is of high quality

Communication • To different audiences

Sales Customer Engineers Boss Marketing

• Effective Reach the objectives, not just inform (RACI model)

Activities of a PM (2) Presentations and reporting Documentation Estimation

• Estimate time• Estimate resource • Estimate cost, etc

Scheduling• When to do what and how long

Managing the team• HR• Skills• Communication • Resolve issues• Other technical issues

Activities of a PM (3)

Resolving Conflicts• Resource• Among team members

Managing Changes • Requirement• Resource• Many other

Other team roles such as QA, technical writer, etc Time management

• As a PM• As an employee

Skills of a PM

Some of them just come to you• Sense of humor• Smart

Some of them can be training • Knowledge over software engineering

Some just need practices• Presentations

Skills of a PM Organizational skills

• Know how to prioritize tasks• Divided and conquer • Know who you are and where you (what you can do and what you cannot do)

Leadership• Know who is fit for what• Know how to motivate people• Know when to say no and how to say no• Have a vision, anticipate changes (good or bad)

People Managing• Set assignment and track progress• Treat others the way you would like to be treated • Be consistent, fair, reasonable, not bossy, honest, etc

Time management Special knowledge and skills Business

• Balancing budget • Making sound business decisions

Presentations Utilizing tools

How to measure success

The outcomes of a project are measurable • The application will be used by a lot of people

(not measurable) • The application will be used by more than

1000, but less than 5000 users (acceptable) 5000, but less 10,000 users (successful) 10,000 users (very successful)

Org Structure

Hierarchical (tree)• HR

Matrix (grid)• Engineering